Kaley Cuoco reveals she nearly had her leg amputated after horse-riding accident

‘The Big Bang Theory’ star said doctors ‘acted like I was never going to walk again’

Laura Hampson
Wednesday 12 October 2022 05:09 EDT
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Kelly Clarkson and Kaley Cuoco trade blackout stories

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Flight Attendant actor Kaley Cuoco has revealed that she nearly had her leg amputated after a horse-riding accident.

Speaking of the incident in new book, Big Bang Theory: The Definitive, the star of the former sitcom explained that she was riding a horse at a ranch in LA in 2010 when it happened.

Cuoco said she fell off her horse after it became spooked and the horse landed on her leg, which meant she had to seek urgent medical attention.

The Big Bang Theory creator Chuck Lorre explained in an extract of the book that the incident was the “darkest, most frightening time” in all 12 years of the show.

“Kaley could have lost her leg. It was a series of miracles that allowed us to get through that and for her to come out the other end of that healthy,” the extract, via People, reads.

At one point there were fears that Cuoco’s leg might need to be amputated with doctor’s suggesting that she wouldn’t be able to walk “for months”.

Cuoco said: “Before I went into surgery, they made me sign something that said, ‘We don’t know until we get in there and see this leg, and it could come out that you don’t have it anymore’.

“That wasn’t the case, obviously, but I had to sign something that said, ‘Okay, you can.’”

She added: “Everything ended up fine, and I was up and working a week later, but the doctors acted like I was never going to walk again. It’s still too much for me to go into, and it sounded way worse than it was. And of course it was spiraling and everyone was freaking out, which I get. It scared people.”

The incident saw Cuoco written out of two episodes of the show before returning to work.

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